1912 Original Hand Lettered Calligraphic Forum Program for the Northfield Massachusetts Seminary for Young Women

Evidently a humorous one-off item, composed in a fairly accomplished 'gothic' calligraphic black ink; the "Program" with a piano solo by Miss Wilkinson, followed by a "Debate. Resolved: that Spring house-cleaning by the students of Northfield Seminary should be abolished..." with affirmative and negative speakers to the point, and song at the end, all held in the East Hall Parlors, dated May 15, 1912 and including the names of Misses Sunderland, Wehl, Parlin, Babcock, Bounton; which happens also to be the year when the boards of Northfield Seminary and the school at Hermon for Boys (founded 1881) were united - the Seminary begun in 1879 by evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody and recently the property itself, while closed due to a consolidation with the Harmon location at Gill, Mass., is supposed to re-open as Christian college in 2012; composed on a single sheet of the Forum Literary Society embossed letterhead paper, with a small 3-tone gilt 'seal' of this society at top, with the words "Forum Literary Society" and their motto, 'Praesentia Intelligere'; lettered sheet approx. 8" x 12", laid down onto a medium-green construction paper backer; in a tiny contemporary hand at bottom right the faintly written word, 'claimed' which may refer to the event or the item itself or to some unknown detail; some darkening, soiling to lettered sheet, backer with some edgewear and good condition overall, interesting bit of ephemeral material from this Christian missionary training school. . Good.